Page 126 - CW E-Magazine (23-4-2024)

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PROJECT MILESTONE
Novoloop & Aether achieve continuous operations

of plastic waste to adipic acid pilot plant

Novoloop, a Menlo Park (California)
based plastic circular economy techno-
logy company, has announced the
successful start-up of its pilot plant built
with Aether Industries, a publicly-listed
speciality chemicals manufacturer, at
the latter’s site in Surat (Gujarat).

Construction of the pilot plant was
completed in March 2024, and it has
now passed equipment testing and sol-
vent runs, and has achieved continuous
operations with the usage of commer-
cially-representative waste feedstock.

“This milestone marks the success-
ful transition from batch reactions to an our pilot plant is successfully demon- developing protocols for commercial
integrated and automated plant that vali- strating this paradigm shift in techno- operations. The plant will produce
dates Novoloop’s fi rst-of-a-kind Life- logy. We are tremendously excited about tonne-scale samples to enable off-take
cycling technology,” a statement from this next chapter, where we make avail- commitments with early customers.
the two companies said. able the fi rst lots of Lifecycled products “Having built the pilot plant in less than
to the world,” said Ms. Miranda Wang, six months, from detailed engineering
Novoloop’s process transforms Co-founder and CEO of Novoloop. to commissioning, the project demon-
post-consumer polyethylene plastic strates remarkable effi ciency and colla-
waste into virgin-quality adipic acid The primary objectives of the pilot boration between the teams,” said
at a carbon footprint reduction of up plant are to demonstrate the safe and Dr. Aman Desai, Director and Senior
to 91%, compared to the conventional reliable operations of the integrated VP of Research, Manufacturing,
process of producing adipic acid. process; validate key equipment per- and Operations at Aether. Novoloop
formance in an industrial environment; plans to expand the pilot capacity to
“After years of research, develop- and achieve production of high purity the full 70-tpa (tonnes per annum)
ment, and engineering, we have built products. The facility also provides demonstration plant scale are already
a radically innovative process and now a platform for training personnel and underway.
Yasho Industries begins production at new plant

in Dahej

Speciality chemicals fi rm, Yasho approximately Rs. 470-crore, surpass- confi dence that the new facility would
Industries Ltd., has announced the ing the initial budget of Rs. 400-crore. bolster Yasho’s competitive position in
commencement of commercial produc- The increased investment was attri- the market and aid in achieving their
tion at its new Pakhajan plant located buted to enhanced automation, a 15% goal of becoming a leading global
in Dahej, Gujarat. increase in capacity, and infl ationary chemical manufacturer.
pressures.
The plant is spread over 42-acres, Yasho Industries operates three
with a unit capacity of 20,000-mtpa, Mr. Parag Jhaveri, Managing Direc- manufacturing units in Vapi besides
and established with an investment of tor & CEO of the company, expressed the new one at Pakhajan.

126 Chemical Weekly April 23, 2024

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